BILL ANALYSIS
AB 743
Page 1
( Without Reference to File )
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 743 (Portantino)
As Amended January 26, 2010
Majority vote
JUDICIARY 10-0 HUMAN SERVICES 7-0
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|Ayes:|Feuer, Tran, Brownley, |Ayes:|Beall, Ammiano, Tom |
| |Evans, Jones, | |Berryhill, Hall, Logue, |
| |Knight, Krekorian, Lieu, | |Portantino, Torres |
| |Monning, Nielsen | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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APPROPRIATIONS 13-0
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|Ayes:|De Leon, Ammiano, | | |
| |Bradford, Charles | | |
| |Calderon, Coto, Davis, | | |
| |Fuentes Hall, John A. | | |
| |Perez, Skinner, Solorio, | | |
| |Audra Strickland, | | |
| |Torlakson | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Requires California to place siblings together when
they have been removed from their parents or guardians unless
that placement is contrary to their safety or well-being
pursuant to the federal Fostering Connections to Success and
Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 (Fostering Connections Act).
Specifically, this bill requires:
1)Social workers to place siblings together when they have been
removed from their parents or guardian because of abuse or
neglect unless it is determined joint placement would be
contrary to the safety or well-being of any of sibling.
2)That any court order placing a child in foster care provide
for visitation between the child and any siblings unless the
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court finds that sibling interaction is contrary to the safety
or well-being of either child.
3)The placing agency to notify the child's attorney within one
business day of a placement or change in placement.
4)Absent emergency circumstances, the placing agency to notify
the child's attorney and the child's siblings' attorneys at
least 10 calendar days prior to the change in placement of a
dependent child if the change will result in the separation of
siblings.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires, a social worker, where possible and appropriate, to
place a child, who has been removed from his or her parents or
guardian because of abuse or neglect, together with his or her
siblings or half-siblings also being removed, or to describe
continuing efforts to place them together if they are not
initially placed together, or to explain why placing them
together is inappropriate. (Welfare & Institutions Code (WIC)
Section 306.5.)
2)Requires, when the court has ordered the removal of a child
from his or her parents, to consider whether there are
siblings also under the court's jurisdiction, the nature of
the relationships between the siblings and the appropriateness
of developing or maintaining those relationships, and the
impact of those relationships on placement and permanency
planning. (WIC Section 361.2(i))
3)Recognizes the importance of sibling relationships and
requires the responsible local agency to maintain sibling
togetherness and contact, whenever possible.
Requires the responsible local agency to make diligent effort in
all out-of-home placements of dependent children to develop
and maintain sibling relationships.
Requires that, if siblings are not placed together in the same
home, the social worker must explain why, what efforts are
being exerted to place them together in the same home, or why
those efforts are not appropriate. (WIC Section 16002.)
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4)Requires a placing agency to notify the child's attorney as
soon as possible after the agency makes a decision regarding a
placement or a change of placement for the child. (WIC
Section 16010.6.)
5)Requires the dependency court to appoint counsel for a
dependent child unless the court affirmatively finds that the
child would not benefit from such appointment. (WIC Section
317.)
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee:
1)Minimal costs for workload associated with notifying siblings'
attorneys in the event of a separation.
2)Potential, unknown cost pressure due to the requirement that
social workers notify attorneys by the end of the following
business day if they need to change sibling placements. Under
current law, a social worker is required to notify the
attorneys as soon as possible.
COMMENTS : The author identifies several issues under current
law that this bill is intended to address:
1)Current law requires the child welfare department to notify
the child's attorney "as soon as possible" when a child has
been moved to a new placement, but does not require the
notification to occur within any prescribed timeframe.
2)Current law does not require the child welfare department to
notify the attorney for the sibling of a child being removed
from a placement where the two children are placed together.
Recent data provided by the author reveal that children in
foster care are often not placed with all their siblings. As of
October 1, 2008, foster children in California are placed
together with all their siblings in only about half of all
cases. The sponsor, Children's Law Center of Los Angeles (CLC),
reports that, often, a sibling group is initially placed
together but one of the children has difficulties or
demonstrates behavioral issues with which the caregiver
struggles to handle. Many times the remedy sought by the social
worker is to remove that child from that foster home, thus
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separating the siblings. CLC believes that with the
intervention of the child's attorney who may have a different
relationship with the caregiver and/or different ideas for
resources to address the underlying issue, many of these
anticipated separations can be avoided.
In October 2008, Congress passed and President Bush signed the
Fostering Connections Act, which will significantly improve the
lives of hundreds of thousands of children and youth in foster
care by promoting permanent families for them through relative
guardianship and adoption, extending assistance to foster
children to age 21, and improving education and health care.
The federal act requires that states use "reasonable efforts" to
place siblings together unless that is contrary to their safety
or well-being. If siblings are not placed together, visitation
between the siblings must happen frequently unless it is
contrary to their safety or well-being. (42 USC Section
671(a).)
This bill revises existing law to clarify that social workers
must place children in foster care with their siblings unless a
joint placement would be contrary to the safety or well-being of
one of the siblings. This provision ensures that California is
in compliance with the Fostering Connections Act.
This bill also establishes a procedure to allow for intervention
if siblings who have been placed together are to be separated.
Existing law requires notice to a dependent child's attorney
when a decision is made about the child's placement or change of
placement. This bill requires that, absent an emergency, a
child's attorney and the attorneys for all the child's siblings,
be notified at least 10 calendar days before a proposed
separation of siblings that have been placed together. This
time period will allow the children's attorneys to investigate
the circumstances of the proposed separation. This should help
prevent siblings from being unnecessarily separated and then
later, after much disruption in their lives, being reunited.
Analysis Prepared by : Michelle Doty Cabrera / HUM. S. / (916)
319-2089
FN: 0003636
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